Spyro: Year of the Dragon

The third game in the Spyro series, and the last to be made by Insomniac Games. Spyro: Year of the Dragon is the biggest of all the Spyro games so far made. It incorporates several new playable characters as well as a new evil to fight.

In this game you play mainly as Spyro, but there are certain levels and parts of levels where you can only play as a different character. The playable characters in this game are: Spyro, Sparx, Hunter, Sheila the Kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd, Bently the Yeti and Agent 9.

Oct 11th 2000

Nov 10th 2000

The Story

Every twelve years, the Dragon Kingdom celebrates its most
important event: the "Year of the Dragon" Festival. Fairies deliver
a new batch of dragon eggs and dragons come from all around to
dance and feast until everyone drops from...eggshaustion.

The Year of the Dragon is upon us again and the fairies have brought
150 eggs to the Dragon Worlds. However, unbeknownst to the
celebrating dragons, a sinister plot is about to unfold...

Far away - on the opposite side of the world - lies a kingdom
long since forgotten by dragonkind. So forgotten, in fact, that
even the legends about these "Forgotten Worlds" have now
been forgotten.

This kingdom is ruled by a mean and spiteful Sorceress who has
frankly become quite fed up with being forgotten. As she sits
on her forgotten throne, the Sorceress has hatched a
fiendishly evil plan. A plan to restore the fading magic to her
forgotten realm. A plan to conquer the dragons once and for
all. All she needs is a little help from her army of horn-nosed
'rhynocs', the cooperation of her mysterious disciple Bianca
and of course, those 150 magical dragon eggs.

The Controls

Spyro the Dragon

Button

Action

X

Jump. Press again when in the air to glide

Square

Charge

Circle

Flame/Spit out rock

Triangle

Look around/Aim rock/Drop out of glide/Headbash when just jumped

R1/L1

Bring the camera behind Spyro fast

R2/L2

Turn the camera

R1+R2+L1+L2

Sparx points at nearest gem (only available when you've earned it)

Sheila the Kangaroo

Button

Action

X

Jump. Press again when in the air to go higher. Press again the moment you land to double jump

Square

Kick

Circle

Kick

Triangle

Look around/Headbash when just jumped

R1/L1

Bring the camera behind Sheila fast

R2/L2

Turn the camera

R1+R2+L1+L2

Sparx points at nearest gem (only available when you've earned it)

Sgt. Byrd

Button

Action

X

Fly, hold to go higher

Square

Drop bomb/projectile

Circle

Fire guns

Triangle

Look around/Aim

R1/L1

Bring the camera behind Sgt. Byrd fast

R2/L2

Turn the camera

R1+R2+L1+L2

Sparx points at nearest gem (only available when you've earned it)

Bentley the Yeti

Button

Action

X

Jump

Square

Thump

Circle

Spin club

Triangle

Look around

R1/L1

Bring the camera behind Bentley fast

R2/L2

Turn the camera

R1+R2+L1+L2

Sparx points at nearest gem (only available when you've earned it)

Agent 9

Button

Action

X

Jump

Square

Throw Bomb

Square (hold)

Aim Bomb

Circle

Fire Weapon

Triangle

Sniper Mode

R1/L1

Zoom in/out in sniper mode

R1/L1

Dodge left/right

R2/L2

Turn the camera

R1+R2+L1+L2

Sparx points at nearest gem (only available when you've earned it)

Gems are strangely identical to the last game. Strangely because Avalar and The Forgotten Worlds are most likely further away from each other then the Dragon Realms is from the Forgotten Worlds. Strange how they have the Avalar set of gems rather than the Dragon Realms set, maybe the Sorceress had the GemCutters in from Avalar though.

Gem Colour

Gem Value

Red

1

Green

2

Purple

5

Yellow

10

Pink

25

The same containers for the gems as in Avalar. However here you get gems from killing the Rhynocs whereas in Avalar they released a Spirit Particle. Also this game sees the return of a locked chest, slightly different in appearence from the first game, but you will still need to find a key to open them.

Comments

I gotten everything on this game too, and found it disappointing. I prefer the way the first two ended, Gnasty's Loot was a great level, the ending, and story was meh. Ripto was a wicked boss to fight, and the story seems to be improved upon giving you more insight to the characters, in Spyro 3, there's no cutscene with the Sorceress towards the end, there's nothing really. It's so random. And the Super Bonus Round felt more like a chore than anything, apart from blasting down UFO's, that was the only satisfying thing.